Becoming a Primary Authority
Primary Authority allows local authorities to make an offer of valuable support to their business community, aligning their regulatory role with corporate commitments to ensure that the local economy prospers. A business that chooses to participate in the scheme is demonstrating a commitment to working in partnership with regulators, and a desire to improve its experience of local regulation. The scheme enables primary authorities to develop positive relationships with such businesses, sowing the seeds for a new way of regulating businesses that are committed to compliance.
A local authority that takes on the role of primary authority for a business is taking responsibility for leading and shaping the regulation of that business across its operations, connecting the business and the local regulatory community. The primary authority provides benefits to both the business that it supports, and to the many local authorities that regulate the business at a local level. Through its work with the business and local authorities, it can ensure better protection for consumers, workers and the environment.
A local authority that commits to offering primary authority will find that the scheme is sufficiently flexible to allow it to tailor its provision to meet its own needs, and those of the businesses with which it enters partnerships. Whilst the scheme has a statutory basis, it is for the local authority to determine how it will operate within the statutory framework.
Practical Guidance
BRDO provides a training course for local authority officers in environmental health, trading standards, petroleum and licensing who want to improve their understanding of Primary Authority.
Guidance and supporting documentation are also available on the following pages:
Primary Authority explained
Offering Primary Authority
Establishing a partnership
Guidance on the Primary Authority IT System
